The Time for Healing
by peanut0565
Summary: Dying once and regenerate easy.  Dying twice and being left for a couple hours then trying to regenerate? What was instantious the first time, will days longer, and alot more pain the second time around.  Can the Petrelli Clan help him through this one?
1. Revived, but not quite regenerated

_"I'm not like you, Claire."_

She had prayed he was wrong as she felt the glass embedded deeply into his skull. She remembered that time earlier when that slim of a quarterback tried to take advantage of her and she ended up with a stick in her head. She came right too when it was removed. So why wouldn't it be the same for Peter? He absorbed her power, he could heal. He could survive this.

It took a bit of effort to tug the shard from his head, it was alot larger then she expected. Once it was completely removed she held her breath, praying silently this would work. Her hero couldn't die like this. She wouldn't allow her only uncle to suffer that kind of fate.

She let her breath go as she heard him gasp and cough. She pulled back a second to let him recover fully. He continued to gasp, his head arched backwards into the cushion, pushing his back upwards. His eyes closed tightly as he twisted his face into an agonized expression.

_Something was wrong. Something was very wrong._

The urgent calls of her grandmother and father didn't reach her as she watched in horror as Peter continued to thrash slightly, breathing, but obviously in tremendous ammounts of pain. His recover should have been over already. He should be staring at her now, being just as healthy as before he received the shard to the head.

_"I'm not like you, Claire."_

She heard those words again in his voice. She was wrong. Well kind of. He did regenerate enough to revive, but clearly it wasn't enough to make him fine and dandy. She felt herself be pulled away by her grandmother as Nathan knelt down beside his brother, trying to sooth his silent cries.

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"Peter?" He breathed in a barely audible voice as heard his body start breathing again. His mother rushed over to his daughter and brother to make sure she wasn't seeing things, probably. Peter had returned to the living world. He was relieved, but baffled at the same time.

Then a new horror arose. Peter was in pain, so much so that Nathan could even feel it from ten feet away. Maybe it was the bond between the brothers, or maybe something else, but Nathan felt it and instantly moved towards his brother.

His mother thankfully pulled Claire away before Nathan had the chance to bulldoze her over. Not that he didn't care for her, it was just not at the top of his list right now. He needed to end the pain, for his brother and himself.

Peter had his back fully arched, and twisting in odd fashions, as Nathan bear hugged him and pulled him back to the cushion. He tried to coax Peter to open his eyes.

"Open your eyes Peter..." He said quietly, repeatively. Peter did not hear him, his head just twisting side to side, gasping between his hoarse quiet pleas, that were only loud enough for Nathan to hear.

"Please, Peter..." Nathan begged, he hadn't realized he was crying until the first drops of his tears were hitting Peter on the cheek. It did the trick though, Peter opened his eyes then slowly and in a jerking fashion.

"Nathan?" He asked in a pained whisper. It was though He couldn't see Nathan right in front of his face. Natahn was shocked that Peter's eyes hadn't returned to their normally hazel hue. They were different now, a milky almost opaque look with a hint of blue.

"Nathan? Where are you?" Peter asked fearfully, his head turning his head as if looking for his brother. Nathan was speechless for a second. He was there hugging Peter tightly to keep him from causing himself more pain, and his own brother couldn't see what was right infront of his face.

"I'm right here, shhh, It's okay now." He finally said quietly, releasing one hand as Peter began to weaken. His thrashing had all but stopped for the most part. Nathan placed a hand on Peters' cheek. Peter's useless eyes returned to glaze at Nathans', then they closed.

Much to Nathans' relief, Peter just passed out as he sat there for a second, before pulling back. "He's blind..." He said just loud enough for the two other occupants to hear.


	2. Not just blind

_**Author's Note: **__Okay, this is AU from episode ".07", had this thought in my head ever since I watched it for the first time... the idea of Peter having to take a longer time to obtain full control over the power and the full power. '_

_Thanks __**ahreada **__and __**shadowtheo **__for the kind reviews. XD_

_Enjoy everyone, and please review XD_

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Claire bit her bottom lip, biting back a sob to rack her small frame. It was heartbreaking seeing her father like that, and even worse her uncle in that state. Though she had only just met Nathan, therer was a small parental bond between them. Not like what she had with her adoptive father, but this was her biological father. She could not quite feel nothing. She as human after all.

"Nathan, We need to take him up to the guest bedroom." Angela spoke with odd calmness. Claire knew she was strange and creepy, but this down right creepy. How could someone be so calm after seeing her own child in such agony? She was either incredibly strong, or in a slight state of catatonia.

"Shouldn't we take him to the hospital?" Claire asked as Nathan started to put himself into a position to carry his younger brother. The youngest female looked at her grandmother then, at the same time Angela looked at her.

"No, This is the best place for him now." She spoke with firm order. Claire stared at her a moment longer, without much realization that Nathan had already numbly started escalating the staircase with Peter snugged protectively in his arms.

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With one arm he pealed the covers away from the king size bed, and then laid Peters' back on the open space. His legs dangling off to the side, while Nathan made sure he was in a comfortable position with the pillows. The eldest Petrelli then removed Peter's shoes, before sticking them underneath the covers. Nathan pulled the rest of the covers over his brothers' chest to make it look like he was sleeping peacefully. Finally he leaned over and placed a gentle kiss on Peters' forehead before looking up to find the two females had followed him through this entire process and were watching intentively.

Nathan sighed heavily and moved towards them, all three leaving the healing one alone for a moment to discuss what happened and what should be done next.

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It had been a couple of hours since that discussion. Claire explained to Nathan and his mother her cellular regeneration, well at least the best she could. Which turned to Peter's ability to absorb. They had come to the conclusion that Peter must have only taken a portion of the ability. Not enough to recover from such the injury he received. Claire proposed that maybe it just took him longer, and maybe after a couple hours he would have healed completely.

Nathan mulled over this as he took a seat next to Peter's bed, awaiting for him to wake again. Praying for all of their sakes that Claire was right this time, and it would only take a couple of painfully long hours for Peter to return to complete health.

Nathan was spent, and half asleep when he started to hear some stirring from the bed. He snapped his head up instantly to see Peter had opened his eyes. Tears of pain rolling down the side of his pale cheeks. At least he wasn't thrashing around this time, probably still too weak to even attempt.

"Peter?" He spoke softly, removing himself from his chair and kneeling down at the side of the bed. He placed a warm hand on his cheek. Peter's head tilted his direction, but the eyes were still as colorless as before, still as useless.

"Nathan?" Peter replied in a hoarse whisper. The emotion within the whisper ranged from agony to confusion to fear at the same time.

"Its alright, everything is going to be okay." Nathan replied in an attemptive soothing voice, but he was exhausted and emotionally drained already.

"In caught sang." Peter replied. Nathan furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

"What?" He asked.

"In caught sang!" Peter replied fearfully. His expression clear on his face. Nathan still could not figure out what he was trying to say. It made no sense.

"What are you trying to say Peter?" Nathan asked again, same question but in a longer form. He searched for any kind of clues.

"In caught sang...in caught sang...Dog!" Peter repeated twice then growled in frustration and fear at the same time.

"Freak, freak freak..." Peter mumbled. Nathan was only getting more confused by the second. Nothing that he was saying made any sort of sense. What was going on with his younger brother?

Peter finally pulled a hand from underneath the covers, gripping Nathans' hand.

"Waist mean." He said firmly. Nathan just stared with confusion, and the deep sense that there was something more wrong then just being blind.

"In..." Peter gestured to himself, poking himself hard in the chest. Harder then the younger brother intended, enough to cause him to cough. Nathan only watched, as Peter tried to state what he was trying to say.

"Caught..." He shook his head in a negative matter. Peter then pointed to his eyes.

"Sang..." Peter said patting the side of his cheekbone near his eye socket feverishly. Nathan finally understood. The words made no sense, but the gestures helped in then some.

"I know.." Nathan mumbled, taking Peters' hand to stop him from creating a bruise on his face. There was alot of brain damage from that shard apparently. Sight was taken from him. Ability to speak properly was gone. And some motor function it seemed like to Nathan.


	3. an old textbook and soup

_**Author's Note: **__Glad people are enjoying this...hopefully as much as I am enjoying writing it. _

_**Polly: **__I am actually suprised no one else has tried this idea yet myself... but yea the story was festering and I could not resist any longer...and I live for the bitter-sweet moments (I luv'd writing that tucking in moment... XD)_

_**shadowtheo:**__ Theres nothing wrong with being sadistic in the fictional world...or at least thats what I keep telling myself... lol I use to be MUCH worse, trust me. (read some of my 24 fanfics and you can see how bad I can be towards my favorite characters...) _

_Thanks __**ShaolinQueen, zookitty, Winchester-Jackson-Petrelli, **__and __**marinawings**_

_Enjoy everyone, and please review XD_

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Angela had the cook whip up some chicken noodle soup for Peter. Claire figured it was the only thing she thought she could do, then she vanished just as quickly as she asked for the soup. It was done minutes later and put into a nice bowl and on a carrying plate.

Claire had taken this chance to enter the room. She could feel that Nathan did not exactly want her around, a unspoken anger that he was trying to hide. Probably about the estimate being wrong. But also it seemed like he needed to know everything when it came to Peter. He was the perfect over protective brother model.

Claire carried the soup up the staircase and to the door were she nudged it open with her foot. Her father hadn't changed positions. Still sitting in that same chair with that same book about the brain. Where he pulled that out of she didn't know. This was a family of lawyers not doctors. Only one who deviated from that path was Peter, who was a hospice nurse. Maybe it was one of his books.

"I brought some soup." She announced quietly. Peter was sleeping on the bed, and she didn't want to wake him unless it was necessary. Nathan glanced up tiredly at her, his eyes bloodshot and dark lines underneath them. He nodded quietly.

"Just put it on the table..." He said with an exhausted voice. She moved quietly around him and set it down, and finally hovered over him and the book.

"Find anything useful?" She asked softly.

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He had found an old textbook of Peter's while rifling through the guestroom that was predominantly Peter's anyways. Whenever he came over he always took refugee in this room, and it had his accent in it anyways. Nathan flipped it open and began hunting for any clues of the issues that Peter was experiencing. The book seemed to be a text from a general psychology course.

After a couple hours Claire reappeared with soup for Peter. She tiptoed around him like the room was littered with eggshells. He wasn't trying to appear angry at her, but some part of him was. She said a few hours, and he believed naively. He should have acted much more rationally, realize she was only a teenager and barely knew her own power. He just could not help a little bit of anger to rise, the exhaustion and exertion only helped that irrationality fester.

He hated not being able to do nothing to stop Peter's pain. He felt the pain too, not as much as before, when Peter first was revived. But still the small portion that was being channeled through whatever the hell bond this was between them was enough to give him a full blown migraine. He could not even imagine the full blown agony that Peter was enduring everytime he awoke.

Claire then asked him if he found anything useful in the book. Besides understanding a little better the damage, not much. He wanted answers, but he wanted to take the pain more. Nathan rubbed his eyes, pinching his nose with his thumb and index finger before speaking in a tired voice once more.

"He has receptive aphasia." he answered then started to read from the book. "Speech is preserved, but language content is incorrect. This may vary from the insertion of a few incorrect or nonexistant words to profuse outpouring jargon. Grammar, syntax, rate, intonation and stress are normal. Substitutions of one word for another are common. Comprehension and repetition are poor." He sighed heavily, then flipped to another page that he dog-eared.

"The area for vision is in the back of the head, and that's why he's blind..." He continued, pointing to the cartooned brain. His finger dragged along to another portion of the cartoon, directly below the area where he had been pointing too. It was labeled the _cerebellum_.

"I think this part was probably damaged too, it says that does some of the motor functions and all of that..." Nathan stifled a yawn. Claire had a hand on his shoulder, for how long he didn't remember but he finally just noticed it.

"Nathan?" He looked up again to see Peter's eyes were open half way now.

"Hey buddy." He replied quietly moving towards him, putting a hand on his cheek to make sure Peter knew he was there. Claire left them alone then, Nathan heard the door shut behind him but paid no mind to it.

"Are you hungry?" He asked, Peter nodded just enough to make it noticeable. Nathan gently pulled Peter up into a sitting position pulling some pillows out from behind him to make it easy to prop his younger brother up into a position easy to feed with.

He then retrieved the bowl of soup and began to basically force feed his younger brother. "You know the last time I did this you were still in diapers..." Nathan commented nearly pushing the spoon into Peter's mouth. The image of his eleven year old self feeding an one year old Peter passed through his head.


	4. sleep and last shred of dignity

_**Author's Note: **__wow. People seem to really like this story XD_

_zookitty: I learned alot in my general psychology course bout the brain, and remembered much of it here, just had to look up one or two things XD_

_Thanks __**charmedtomeetyou, ShaolinQueen, sami1010220, Polly, **__and __**marinawings**_

_Enjoy everyone, and please review XD_

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Claire was playing messenger girl apparently between Nathan and his mother. So she was given the daunting task of trying to drag Nathan away from Peter. She'd rather die. She knew Nathan wouldn't leave that room willingly, so this would be tricky.

"He needs rest, Claire. He's no good for any of us going the way he is." Angela told her. She asked why Angela wouldn't do it herself, but only got a glare in return. That woman was by far the strangest she had ever meet.

So with the caution of a white tail deer crossing the road she eased herself into Peter's room. Both Petrelli males were sleeping, one in a peaceful position, the other in one that would leave him stiff beyond on imaginings. No matter how comfortable the chair, sleeping in one was a bad idea.

"Nathan?" She whispered, creeping towards him. His head hung down, chin touching his chest; His arms bent into his lap curled loosely around the same book as before, and his legs in an indian sitting position on the chair.

"Nathan?" She whispered again after he didn't stir the first time around. She was close enough to reach out and touch his arm gently. That was enough to wake him up. Instantly the inanimated became animated. His head snapped up, and he blinked a few times before yawning and focusing on Claire with his sleep deprived eyes.

"What is it Claire?" He asked in a quiet gruff voice.

"You should sleep in an actual bed." She replied.

"I'm fine." He refused.

"The chair will kill your back, if it already isn't." Claire returned.

"Who's the parent here?" He growled back.

"Don't kill the messenger, your mother sent me." She said softly. "And I agree with her." She continued in an even quieter voice.

"Alright." He gave in. Her eyes lite up, suprised that he gave in so quickly. He must have been really tired. She watched as he struggled to his feet, almost ready to help him if he was already stiff, which seemed to be the case. Her eyes didn't leave him until staggered out the door and shut it.

Claire then glanced at Peter, who laid peacefully and tugged tightly within the blankets sleeping quietly. She smirked slightly then sat down in what was once Nathans' spot.

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After leaving the room He found his mother in his office downstairs, sipping on some wine and reading. He looked at her for a second longer, waiting for her to notice him and look up from the book she had been reading.

"I called Heidi, and told her to stay in Nantucket for a few more days." She said without even looking up at him.

"What reason did you give her?" He asked, knowing full well she lied to his wife. A small burst of anger came and went. Heidi understood the bond between him and Peter better then his mother did. And one day He would tell her the truth, the whole truth. She deserved that.

"I told her you and Peter caught a bad cold, and you didn't want her and the boys to get it." She replied nonchalantly. Nathan only nodded then moved towards the sitting room, where this hell all began. He stared at the cushion where Peter's cadaver once laid.

He was really glad that he was still alive...or returned to life, whatever the hell happened. But it was beginning to look like it was going to be more hell then it was worthe to bring him back. He was in so much pain. Nathan hated, absolutely Hated, seeing Peter in pain. He hated that he felt it too in his own bones and veins.

_Maybe he would have been better off staying dead._

The moment he thought that, he regretted it. He didn't wish for this hell, but Peter was alive. He had to keep telling himself, things would get better. Things had to get better. Otherwise Nathan would end up in a mental institution. The eldest brother rubbed his eyes roughly as he escalated the stairs again, almost tripping up them from his fatigue.

Claire and his mother were correct, he needed sleep. He stumbled down the hallway and found his own bedroom, and promptly collapsed on it. Shoes, Cloths, and all. He didn't even bother to get underneath the covers. He didn't have the strength. He was asleep within seconds.

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_Crash._

His eyes popped open wide. Before he was conciously aware of it, he was on his feet and hurling himself towards Peter's room. He knew that was the general area where the loud noise came from. He ripped open the door, nearly taking off its' hinges in the process, to find Peter sprawled over the edge of the bed. His legs were on the bed, entangled in the sheets and covers, and his chest and arms flailed out on the carpet.

What was worse was next to Peter's head laid a pile of the soup that Peter had downed a few hours prior. He couldn't keep it down apparently, and in an attempt to move towards the bathroom, he couldn't get his body to move properly towards it. Ending in the crash and expelling of the vile on the floor.

Claire was by his side trying to get him back to the bed, but Peter refused, pulling from her grasp. The last shred of Peters' dignity was gone, and it was obvious that his little brother didn't know it, trying to maintain whatever he had left in fending off Claire from helping him like some poor helpless puppy.


	5. Finally making progress and sleep

_**Author's Note:**__ I need to update this one... XD You are probably thinkin 'Its about time!'_

_**Sari:**__ I don't do incest. I find it wrong on so many levels that I don't even want to think about the subject. For fan fiction, I can handle gay slash, but I draw the line at incest stories... So don't worry. Thanks for reading._

_Thanks to __**sami1010220, shadowtheo, marinawings**__, and __**ShaolinQueen**_

_ENJOY and please review!_

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"Claire, stop." She heard from the door, immediatly stopping what she was doing and looking at her biological father who was leaning against the door frame. Still looking as tired as ever. She thought she could handle it herself and keep from waking him up, but obviously she failed.

She wanted to say something, but when she opened her mouth nothing came out but air. She looked back at Peter, who was scrambling to untangle his legs. He woke up in a rush, she didn't understand what He wanted. He didn't say anything, just launched himself from the bed like he was on a mission.

It wasn't until he collided face first with the carpet, and threw up that she understood his sudden urgent movement. Instantly she was at his side, trying to help him up, but he fended her off, pushing her away weakly with his hands and shaking his head.

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He took a few slow steps over to Peter and Claire, and with one simple wrist flick he untangled the sheet that was wrapped around Peters' legs. The youngest Petrelli righted himself into a sitting position staring at Nathan.

"Thanks..." He mumbled quietly. Natahn blinked then turned his head to lock eyes with Peter.

"Can you see me?" He asked cautiously.

"Kind of..." Peter said quietly, crawling over to the bed and pulling himself up without trouble, but fatigue. Nathan nearly attacked him with a hug, but restrained himself. Peter was healing, and it was noticeable now. He had regained his ability to speak, and what sounds like some of his speech.

"Get back to sleep Pete." The eldest Petrelli said tiredly, watching his sibling crawl underneath the covers again, curling them around himself in a child-like way.

"G'night..." Peter whispered before he was fast asleep again. Nathan looked to his daughter who was sitting there with a blank stare, she then looked away at the mess on the floor.

"Don't worry, the maid will get it." Natahn told her softly, before standing up with a small grunt. He was still so very tired.

"Maybe you should get some sleep too." He said to Claire.

"Shouldn't someone watch over him?" She asked him. He shook his head lightly.

"I can hear him move around from down the hall, if he gets into any trouble. I've got it handled." He assured her. She nodded, giving a small sad little smile that she had obviously mastered over her young years.

"Good Night, Nathan." She said to him before vanishing from the room. He lingered for a second longer, eyeing up his sleeping brother and sighed heavily. He then staggered back to his own bed for some more sleep. At least now it would be more peaceful.


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